


Once a king dressed in red

by ExultedShores



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Low Chaos (Dishonored), Post-DotO, Spoilers, The Void
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 14:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12110742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExultedShores/pseuds/ExultedShores
Summary: “My name is Daud.”The statement echoes through the infinite Void, reverberating endlessly yet fading away at the same time. The truth of it stays with him long after the sound has dissipated.





	Once a king dressed in red

**Author's Note:**

> This is the result of my emotional state immediately after learning the ending of Death of the Outsider. Spoilers for everything, read with caution.

“My name is Daud.”

The statement echoes through the infinite Void, reverberating endlessly yet fading away at the same time. The truth of it stays with him long after the sound has dissipated.

His mother gave him the name, which means ‘beloved’ in her native tongue. She was a hard woman, moulded by the climate of the isle she came from and the horrid experience she went through when she was forced to leave her home, yet she gazed upon the child she never wanted, the child who looked more like her rapist than he did her, and loved him unconditionally.

“My name is Daud.”

He whispered it to himself every night before he went to sleep on the filthy old matrass he had to share with another, reminding himself of his heritage, his mother, his life. The one who snatched him off the streets and imprisoned him with others he could exploit wanted him to forget, hit him whenever he made a reference to his origins. But he never forgot. He probably couldn’t even if he wanted to, no more than he could ever forget his mother’s face.

“My name is Daud.”

Those were the last words his tormentor heard, seconds before he caved in the man’s skull with the gold bar he’d been sent to retrieve. It was the first time he took another human’s life. He never regretted it. He still doesn’t.

His mother was long gone by the time he escaped, killed by Overseers who thought her a witch. She was never a witch, just a talented herbalist who sold her poisons too liberally and never cared enough to deny the rumours about her relationship with the occult.

“My name is Daud.”

He didn’t need to tell the Outsider, but he did anyway, standing tall and proud even in the face of a God. The deity who looked so young and yet ancient at the same time called him _fascinating_ , and bestowed upon him a strange Mark on the back of his hand that came with abilities he never even could have dreamed of.

Son of the Void, those who slandered his mother used to call him. Outsider’s bastard. If only they’d known how right they would be.

“My name is Daud.”

The girl looked at him with awe, anticipation, determination, but not fear. Never fear. She gave him her name in return, and he took her under his wing without hesitation, knowing she was _special_.

She was the best he ever trained, taking to the powers he could share like none other before her. He made her his second in command within two years of her admittance. She tried to drive a knife into his back years later, as he had expected from her. His pride in her was only matched by his regret, and he let her leave with her life.

“My name is Daud.”

They always flinched when he told them, as if the mention of his name made him real, made whatever they were about to do real. He liked the fear in their eyes, revelled in their anxiety in his presence. After all, he was special, he was _fascinating_ , and they were not. They would give him the name of someone they wanted gone, along with a pouch of coin, and he would take care of it. No questions, no loose ends, no remorse.

The bald shrimp of a man who asked him to kill an Empress was no different from the rest of them. The guilt he felt after the fact was.

“My name is Daud.”

The statue knew. It knew who he was, what he was doing, why he was there. His mother warned him never to make an enemy of a witch, and she was right. His second turning on him, his base ransacked by Overseers, his men slaughtered. _Never make an enemy of a witch_.

The witch didn’t realise she shouldn’t have made an enemy of him either.

“My name is Daud.”

He expected it to be his last thought, expected to enter the Void with nothing but his name, slain by the man whose life he ruined beyond repair, the man who possessed the same Mark he did. The man who held a knife to his throat, and then walked away. _Extraordinary_.

He understood why the Outsider chose him.

“My name is Daud.”

It became a mantra in his captivity, the one thing he still knew for certain when they turned on that infernal machine and wiped away his every other conscious thought. The Black Magic Brute they called him, as if he hadn’t been given worse names before. Son of the Void. Outsider’s Bastard. Knife of Dunwall.

_Daud_.

“My name is Daud.”

The audiograph machine crackled as he recorded his voice for the last time. A final message for his greatest apprentice, the closest thing he ever had to family. He sipped the last of her expensive whiskey, sat back in the chair she obviously stole from some rich sap, and gave in to the irresistible pull of the Void.

“Your name was Daud.”

The black-eyed bastard always did like to taunt him. But she was coming for him now. He would die like any other, and then there would be no one to distribute the magic of the Void unevenly, no one to give abilities to those most likely to ruin the world even without supernatural powers. There would be no more Outsider.

She came for him, as she’d promised. But she didn’t kill the Outsider. She turned to him for help instead, pleaded with him to give the deity a life. To give him mortality. To give him his _name_.

He couldn’t refuse.

“My name is Daud.”

He should have faded away. He felt his existence wavering after freeing the Outsider, knew he would soon cease to be completely. He was ready.

Yet here he is still.

“My name is… Daud.”

_No_.

“My name – Daud.”

The one thing they could never take from him.

“My name… it’s… my name is…”

This is his punishment. This will be his penance.

“My name…”

He is alone for a long time, or perhaps not that long at all, before another makes his way to him, a living soul in the Void.

“You are the Outsider.”

No, he wants to say, my name is –

“Yes.”

He regards the newcomer through pitch-black eyes, this mortal who looks at him with anticipation, awe, determination, but not fear. Strange, yet familiar somehow.

“I am the Outsider, and this is my Mark.”

**Author's Note:**

> So there are things I really love about DotO, like the gameplay, the lore, the world, and the plentiful mentions of Deirdre.  
> However, I am really disappointed with the story, especially since Daud's character was utterly ruined in the process. All of the development he went through was just thrown out the window in one go and I think he deserved so much better.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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